I had been planning a build in which the Crossbow was the main weapon, and eventually he would become a Vampire Lord and side with Harkon, but I am starting to wonder if that will actually be a viable idea since ammo availability will be very scant. My original plan was to reverse pickpocket a crossbow and a Dwarven bolt onto members of the Thieves Guild who do archery practice, but that doesn't seem to be working at all... (unless I am missing something).
I wonder if I should maybe go Dawnguard up until the Soul Cairn for the ability to craft bolts, and maybe upgrade my weapon, and then allow Serana to vamp me for entrance. At that point, I could decide to completely ignore the Dawnguard except for the forge.
Any input on viable ways to keep bolts available without doing it that way? Even spending as long as I can stand waiting on Agmaer to fire them into the crates before the first quest has it's limits!
Step 1: Raid Castle Dawnguard before picking a side. Get some spare crossbows and all the bolts you can find.
Step 2: Have relevant archery perks for ammo recovery. Also go into Dwemer ruins for Dwarven bolts.
Step 3: Join the Volikhar with your repository of bolts.
Step 4: ???
Step 5: Profit
I hadn't tried doing missions for them, though I suspected the mission part won't work, due to quest stage progression. Buying items is great tool though. Almost eliminates the drawbacks of choosing vampire. The only thing you miss out is Ruunvald quest (you can sell Elder Scrolls to Dexion on PC )